2010/2011 Final Project: Facing the Future


Overview

This is your chance to show me your skills! Your task is to chose a piece of literature or media, follow the Inquiry process of analysing the media, asking big questions, discovering the answers and presenting them. I am expecting you to show me what you have learned this year about learning. I think that you guys have come a very long way from the Pakistan Flood presentation and I want you to prove me right!

So, what Counts as Literature or Media?

Literature or media can be any of the following:
  • a novel
  • a magazine article
  • a movie
  • a poem
  • a song
  • a website
  • a comic book/graphic novel
  • a newscast or newspaper

What Do I Do With It?

You are going to do what we have done all year. You are going to listen to it, read it, or watch it and ask yourself the following:
  • What is the author/presenter trying trying to tell me?
  • Is the author/presenter correct?
  • Do I agree with what this is telling me?
  • AND MOST IMPORTANTLY, What questions do I still have about this?

Then What?

You are going to follow the inquiry process of asking questions inspired by the media that you have selected. You will ask questions about it and seek the answers for them. You will then take what you discover and put it together into a presentation (you are all good at that now), just for me, on your media selection.

When Do I Work On This?

Your time to work on this will be as soon as you are done your Social Action Project. For those that are presenting your Social Action project, you may want to begin overlapping your time. You will have all Literacy and Inquiry time for the rest of the year.

When is it Due?

The absolute final day for this project is Monday June 20th. No homework passes will be accepted and no late projects will be accepted. I need to mark them for your report cards.

What Do I Hand In?

You hand in everything. I want to see the media that you used, the notes you take, the questions you ask, the planning you do, the writing you include and the final project. You will also do a final reflection on the inquiry process. It is about the process as much as it is the product.

How Will You Mark It?

Your mark will either go to your Literacy Marks and to your Inquiry marks for Science OR Social. It depends on what your question is about and how you present it.
I am going to assess you on the following critera:
Media or Literature Choice
  • Does it inspire questions?
  • Is it related to the theme?
5 marks
Questions asked
  • Are your questions big questions?
  • Are they researchable?
  • Are they formed from analyzing your media or literature choice based on the questions above?
  • DId you choose a question, begin research and then refine it to a more focused question?
10 marks
Research
  • Did you chose a good question to research?
  • Is your research complete for answering the question?
  • Were you able to research independently using key word searches and by analyzing your resource?
  • Did you organize your research well?
  • Did you use your class time well?
10 mark
Final Presentation of Inquiry
  • Did you answer your question well?
  • DId you present your answer in a manner that makes sense for what your were inquiring about?
  • Did you use the presentation tool to the best of it's abilities?
  • Is your presentation complete and polished?
  • Is your final project focused on a refined topic or is it broad and too general?
25 marks
Reflection
Answer the following questions about the inquiry process
  1. What did you like best about the inquiry process? Why?
  2. What was the most difficult part of the process? What could you do to make it easier for yourself?
  3. What would you do differently next time?
  4. How do you think you will be able to use the inquiry process next year?
  5. How do you think knowing how to work independently and discover on your own will help you as an adult?
20 marks

Have a look at this rubric to see what we expect you to do. This is included in your report cards!